How Literature is being assessed at Manjusri Secondary

As Literature is only being taught at the lower secondary level, I will only be commenting on that.

From what I have seen, the assessment format is fairly widespread. Students are assessed based on a wide range of activities including drama, poster-making, journal writing and of course, the good ol' written exams.

For the drama component, this is mostly done in Secondary 2. Students are encouraged to act out scenes from the text that they are doing (Animal Farm). They are then assessed on a set rubrics that includes: their acting, the props used and overall ability to effectively communicate to their classmates the main idea of the scene.

Over the holidays, the students were also told to come up with a poster on 'Power - How to Gain it and How to Keep it'. This was to be a group project. Once again, they were assessed based on a set of rubrics that included: the content, organization and design of the poster.

For the Secondary 1's the teachers are still working on developing their ability to articulate themselves and form coherent arguments. Thus, most of the assessment is done during lesson time. This would include asking them questions and getting individual students to stand and verbally respond to the questions. Students are then encouraged to write down the responses, following the S-E-E format (Statement, Evidence, Explanation). As they are writing, the teacher will then walk around the class to check on them individually and correct their mistakes on the spot.

The students are also encouraged to keep a journal and write down weekly reflections. The journals are then checked by the teacher once a month, just to see their progress and note down any lazy students who may or may not have done their work.